Ceasefire body to report complete halt in IRA activity

The body set up to monitor paramilitary ceasefires in the North is expected to issue a positive report about the ending of IRA activity today.

In its last report, the Independent Monitoring Commission said it believed the IRA was genuinely living up to its promise to end all paramilitary and criminal activity.

However, it also said some republicans were continuing their involvement in crime, the IRA was still engaged in intelligence-gathering and there was "credible" information to suggest that the organisation had withheld some weapons from the decommissioning body.

Today's report is expected to say that any retention of weapons was done against the instructions of the IRA leadership.

It is also expected to report a complete absence of any activity by the IRA in the three months up to February, including intelligence-gathering, training and recruitment.

The assessment is set to put further pressure on the Democratic Unionist Party to end its refusal to share power with Sinn Féin.

However, the DUP is insisting that it will only consider doing so once it is satisfied that the IRA is going out of business for good, rather than for strategic reasons.